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Audience

An audience is formed by your potential consumers or the group of people to whom you direct your products or services. Groups of similar people within your audience can be represented by fictional profiles called personas (e.g., core constituents, supporters, future brand believers).

Brand

A brand is defined as a "name, term, design, symbol or other feature (or a combination of these) that identifies a maker’s or seller’s goods or services as distinct from those of other makers or sellers”.

Brand Essence

A brand essence is formed by the values and principles that each brand wants and is capable of representing, that characterize and make the brand unique. These remain unchanged over time. Once identified, you will have a valuable asset that you can use to direct and support the growth of your green business.

Brand Positioning

A brand positioning is the positioning strategy of a brand with the goal of making a unique impression in the minds of customers and at the marketplace. Brand positioning has to be desirable, specific, clear, and distinctive in nature from the rest of the competitors in the market. Effective brand positioning enables a venture’s brand to be readily distinguishable from its competitors and provides something that competitors are not adequately addressing.

Brand Space

A brand space is the potential value domain of your brand and is far larger than the served space of your current, “operational” brand. It is the territory your brand could expand into, spaces that are essential for growing customers and your business.

Brand Strategy

A brand strategy is the marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, design, words, or a combination of these, that identify and differentiate a product from its competitors. Over time, this image becomes associated with a level of credibility, quality, and satisfaction in the consumer’s mind.

Brand Style Guide

A brand style guide is a reference document that guides your visual identity, language, templates, key wording and approved statements to assist you and your collaborators in the right use of your visual brand elements. They ensure brand consistency across any promotional materials, visuals or references to your brand, no matter who creates it.

Brand Identity

A brand identity is a set of tools or elements used by a company to create a brand’s image. It is the customers’ perception of the brand, consisting of various associations related to it and memories about interacting with it. It starts with the name of your sustainable business, the first thing your audiences learn about you, but goes beyond that to include your logo, a slogan, colors and graphic styles, a voice and tone, etc.

Circular Economy

Looking beyond the current take-make-waste extractive industrial model, a circular economy aims to redefine growth, focusing on positive society-wide benefits. It entails gradually decoupling economic activity from the consumption of finite resources, and designing waste out of the system. Underpinned by a transition to renewable energy sources, the circular model builds economic, natural, and social capital. It is based on three principles: designing out waste and pollution; keeping products and materials in use; and regenerating natural systems.

Digital Communications

Online communications are any and all marketing actions that are done via the Internet. They are being used effectively, and increasingly, and include, among others, emails, online forums, interactions on different social media sites, blogs or social networking pages, and video and audio through online conferences.

Key Stakeholder

A key stakeholder is an agent or group related to the project, either because that stakeholder is influenced/affected by project objectives or, the other way around, the stakeholder has an influence/effect on these, or both. The most common examples of external stakeholders include customers, suppliers, communities, investors and funders, peer companies, and government agencies.

Logo

A logo is a graphic (a mark, emblem or symbol) used as a dedicated visual to represent a company, organization or brand, and it aids and promotes public identification and recognition. It often takes the form of some adaptation of the company name or brand name or used in conjunction with the name.

Offline Communications

Offline communications are any and all marketing actions that do not involve the Internet. They are far reaching and engage an important part of our audiences, and studies suggest that hard copy marketing is easier to process and recall. Offline marketing includes traditional media like billboards, face-to-face, physical print and placement/POP (point of purchase), television, and radio.

Positioning

Positioning your sustainable brand properly is very important, and a well-positioned brand connects emotionally with its audience while highlighting what makes it unique (your brand essence). Your brand positioning should reflect what’s important to your audience: what your venture is uniquely suited to deliver and what your competitors are not adequately addressing.

Storytelling

Storytelling is a marketing practice that focuses on crafting stories for your audience, instead of just listing facts or characteristics. Storytelling is used because stories engage the audience better, and stories stick around longer in the mind.

Strategic Partnerships

A strategic partnership is a relationship with a key stakeholder in pursuit of common goals, aligned with your green entrepreneurial purpose and values. There are different types of partnerships, but a typical one involves short-term projects or alliances that bring together multiple partners for a specific project. They can range from co-branding partnerships to commercial ventures, or even alliances to share access to new markets or suppliers.

Sustainable Business

A sustainable business provides commercial solutions to environmental challenges which are economically viable and socially empowering.

GLOSSARY OF KEY CONCEPTS